Circle of Friends launches support for Hampton Elementary School:
Hampton Elementary School is in the center of the Cottage Grove Community and essential for the goal of high quality education from cradle to career or college. Principal Thyais Maxwell and the entire faculty and staff are committed to an ambitious school improvement plan. The Circle of Friends is a group of over fifty people from all sectors of the Greensboro community committed to this cause, the school, and the children of the Cottage Grove neighborhood. The Circle of Friends serves by volunteering wherever their skills and influence can touch and change a child’s life and where needed and by providing the material and financial resources to support the programmatic needs of the children. Priorities this year are:

1. A mentoring program, already well established through the partnership with NCA&T, is seeking cohort of adults to serve in a one-on-one relationship with students identified by the school who either desire such a relationship or would be greatly benefited by one. Thomas Griffis, who served last year as a mentor is the “captain” of this initiative and will be reporting in more detail on the program, its important value, and its need for committed volunteers.

2. ACES (After School Care and Enrichment Services) program, providing academic support, enrichment experiences, and recreational activities while emphasizing the values of character, respect, responsibility, and discipline. Many of Hampton’s students whose parent or parents are working are “latch key kids,” going home at the end of the school day for hours of unsupervised time because they cannot afford ACES. Our goal is to raise at least $10,000 for scholarships. Tax deductible gifts may be made to the Hampton Elementary School, 2301 Trade Street, Greensboro, NC 27401. A gift of $50 will fund one child for a week, a gift of $200 will fund one for a month, and a gift of $1,000 will fund the child for the balance of the year.

3. Reading makes a huge difference in the academic success of the students. In order to be a Reading Buddy or to work in classrooms with students, you must register as a volunteer at the Guilford County School web site, www.gcsvolunteers.com. As you complete the registration, designate Hampton Elementary as the school in which you want to volunteer, mark the areas in which you are interested, and the times you may be available. Upon your approval, Ms. Walser-Desautels, the social worker and volunteer coordinator at the school, will contact you by email and assign you to a teacher. The teacher will send you an email to determine the specific area of interest and times that work within the class schedule. Also, if you would let me know that you have completed the registration, I will be able to keep a record of our involvement. You will build relationships with them while supporting their growth in reading. The Reading Buddies from Christ United Methodist Church and the Hamilton Lakes Lions Club have found this to be a very rewarding experience. Contact Carolyn McKinney comkville@aol.comor 336-638-8682.

4. Robotics will encourage students to be interested in science, technology, and math. We plan to conduct robotics for grades 3-5. We’ll have them working with the LEGO robotics kits. We have spoken to the executive director of NC FIRST (the organization that manages all robotics from K-12 in the state of NC), Marie Hopper, and we’ve managed to work some very good things out: NC FIRST will give us any robotics kits we’ll need for free. Hampton already has some kits (I’ll be doing an inventory check on Wednesday) but if we need any extras, we know who to ask. We’ll have the kids work on the First Lego League challenge from last year. It is in our best interest to give the kids a practice year before signing them up for the actual competition. We’ll work the kids through a curriculum prepared by Carnegie-Mellon University. Ms. Hopper recommended it to us. NC FIRST will train us as mentors; the training session typically lasts about 2 hours, to be scheduled soon. Robotics at Hampton will definitely come to fruition; it’s up to us to make sure that it comes fast. Thank you very much. Contact Yusuf Olakoba olakobayusuf@gmail.com

Hampton Saturdaysenrich students’ lives with music, art, gardening, exercise play, and other activities on the second Saturday morning of each month. Parents join in the activities, enjoying healthy interactions with children, volunteers, and the Hampton team.(more…)